Extract Values between two strings in a text file using python

Question

Lets say I have a Text file with the below content

fdsjhgjhg
fdshkjhk
Start
Good Morning
Hello World
End
dashjkhjk
dsfjkhk

Now I need to write a Python code which will read the text file and copy the contents between Start and end to another file.

I wrote the following code.

inFile = open("data.txt")
outFile = open("result.txt", "w")
buffer = []
keepCurrentSet = True
for line in inFile:
    buffer.append(line)
    if line.startswith("Start"):
        #---- starts a new data set
        if keepCurrentSet:
            outFile.write("".join(buffer))
        #now reset our state
        keepCurrentSet = False
        buffer = []
    elif line.startswith("End"):
        keepCurrentSet = True
inFile.close()
outFile.close()

I'm not getting the desired output as expected I'm just getting Start What I want to get is all the lines between Start and End. Excluding Start & End.

Answer 1

Just in case you have multiple "Start"s and "End"s in your text file, this will import all the data together, excluding all the "Start"s and "End"s.

with open('path/to/input') as infile, open('path/to/output', 'w') as outfile:
    copy = False
    for line in infile:
        if line.strip() == "Start":
            copy = True
            continue
        elif line.strip() == "End":
            copy = False
            continue
        elif copy:
            outfile.write(line)